- Dec 19, 2014
- 7
- 0
- 7
Hey all, I have a flock of 4 birds, 3 Buff Orphs and 1 Araucauna. The Araucauna is usually full of energy (she's about 9 months old), until 2 days ago (Sunday). On Sunday, they all had a totally normal day. About 7PM, she changed - went from totally normal, to having a drooping tail, moving really slow, and her butt feathers sort of pulsing in/out with her breath.
I checked her for a bound egg (she did lay that morning) and felt nothing. I did see a lump of runny poop near her, brownish in color, but not sure if it was hers. I did notice she seemed quite a bit skinnier than I remembered - but she's very high energy and usually hard to catch so this may be a misnomer. Anyhow, I didn't know what to do so I put them away as usual, and the next morning (Monday) she was spry and totally normal. I thought Pfew! All is well. They had a normal day yesterday, and this morning when I went out there (Tuesday) she's on the roost, staying inside, and all droopy again.
Does this sound like anything common, that would cause her to be fine one day, sick, then fine again, then sick again? 1 day apart? Yesterday she ate well, seemed hungry, and energetic.
I did change their food on Saturday from one brand of organic laying crumbles to another so I guess its possible that she's somehow got issues with the new food? The other thing is that the past week or two they've been out grazing on some new grass for a few hours a day - but all the others seem to be fine, and they love the grass it would seem.
Any bells ring for what this might be? Any suggestions? Unfortunately, on my last flock I had a sick chicken and we called every vet in town and none of them could be arsed to help us - and so we ended up giving the bird to a friend who cared for her til it was clear she wasn't going to recover, and he did the deed of putting her out of her misery. I hate the thought of that, but what I learned is that there are no vets here in my area that care about chickens.
Thanks for any ideas...
I checked her for a bound egg (she did lay that morning) and felt nothing. I did see a lump of runny poop near her, brownish in color, but not sure if it was hers. I did notice she seemed quite a bit skinnier than I remembered - but she's very high energy and usually hard to catch so this may be a misnomer. Anyhow, I didn't know what to do so I put them away as usual, and the next morning (Monday) she was spry and totally normal. I thought Pfew! All is well. They had a normal day yesterday, and this morning when I went out there (Tuesday) she's on the roost, staying inside, and all droopy again.
Does this sound like anything common, that would cause her to be fine one day, sick, then fine again, then sick again? 1 day apart? Yesterday she ate well, seemed hungry, and energetic.
I did change their food on Saturday from one brand of organic laying crumbles to another so I guess its possible that she's somehow got issues with the new food? The other thing is that the past week or two they've been out grazing on some new grass for a few hours a day - but all the others seem to be fine, and they love the grass it would seem.
Any bells ring for what this might be? Any suggestions? Unfortunately, on my last flock I had a sick chicken and we called every vet in town and none of them could be arsed to help us - and so we ended up giving the bird to a friend who cared for her til it was clear she wasn't going to recover, and he did the deed of putting her out of her misery. I hate the thought of that, but what I learned is that there are no vets here in my area that care about chickens.
Thanks for any ideas...